TEXT Over the course of the last 30 years, perhaps no subject has been treated so extensively in business literature as that of leadership. Despite this, leadership seems to be experiencing a renaissance as the focus of a myriad of books, articles, seminars, and conferences. Why this rekindled interest in a topic that seems so well covered? We believe it is because an entirely new form of leadership is critical to the renewal and growth that are the “what next?” of reengineering and corporate downsizing. Perhaps nowhere is the need for redefinition so strong as in the corporate finance organization, where business partnering and people skills are replacing number crunching as the most sought-after abilities. Visionary leadership will be the engine for this change. To better understand what causes such leaders to emerge, the Finance Leadership Council at Motorola, joined with Arthur Andersen to conduct a year-long study of leadership development practices at 19 organizations.,Unit TenLeaders TodayArthur Andersen Business Consulting,Unit TenLeaders TodayArthur Andersen Business Consulting,“We consciously looked outside the finance organisation for ideas”, says Edgardo Pappacena, partner in charge of Arthur Andersen Business Consultings Change Enablement practice and leading partner for the study. “We had a strong belief that transformational insights would not be tied to function. Looking outside finance got us thinking more creatively”. To extend the teams thinking further, interviews were conducted not only with multinational corporations that matched Motorola in size and global reach, but also with other organisations that offered the potential for out-of-the-box insights. The goal of the study was to gain insights about: Processes for identifying and developing next-generation leadership; Environments that encourage the emergence or growth of leaders; Ways of measuring success in developing leaders.,Unit TenLeaders TodayArthur Andersen Business Consulting,The study consisted of two parts: 1) a series of hour-long interviews with the 19 participating organisations; and 2) in-depth site visits with three of the companies: SmithKline Beecham, Royal Dutch Shell, and Levi Strauss that is actively promoting the current model of leadership while discouraging behaviors that do not conform to it, that companies will be able to develop the kind of leaders they say they want. There Is an Implicit Assumption That a Focus on Leadership Is Yielding or Will Yield Better Business Results, But No One Can Prove It. The rationale for redefining leadership is closely tied to the changing business environment and the new rules of competition.,Unit TenLeaders TodayArthur Andersen Business Consulting,Companies have forged ahead, designing initiatives that will produce leaders who will thrive under this new world order. But how can they tell whether their efforts are paying off? Few have determined how they will ultimately measure success. Most organisations are measuring leadership initiatives in some way, such as tracking the career progress of individuals who have graduated from development programmes. A handful of companies mention a somewhat counterintuitive indication of success: the frequency with which their people are contacted by corporate recruiters. Others suggest that an effective measure might be hit rates for filling management openings with internal candidates. In most cases, however, business results are cited as the ultimate measure of success, which underscores why many companies have a hard time letting go of top performers who do not exemplify leadership values but are very good at generating profits. But no one offered a method or formula for linking the impact of successful leadership development activities directly to financial outcomes.,Unit TenLeaders TodayArthur Andersen Business Consulting,Interestingly, budgets for leadership development are growing when many other corporate initiatives are being curtailed or closely scrutinized. This seems to reflect a sense that financial results will follow investments in developing leaders and that spending money on leadership development is a no-brainer resource allocation decision. Organisations are struggling with two conflicting objectives: 1) to encourage leadership behaviors in every member of the organisation, and 2) to identify and develop a chosen few to lead the company in the future.,Unit TenLeaders TodayArthur Andersen Business Consulting,Encouraging Employees to Seek Out Leadership Challenges Is an Important Way to Ensure That Leaders Bubble Up. More than half the respondents pointed to performance appraisal and individual development plans as the primary means for encouraging employees to seek out leadership challenges. Others cited mentoring and instilling leadership values in individuals. Perhaps surprisingly, more than a third said that no formal encouragement was needed in their organisation. One such organisation said